The proposed project is an exploratory study of the experience of using methadone as it pertains to women addicts. The study will focus on women in methadone maintenance programs and will also look at women's illicit use of methadone. During this two-year study, 100 individual interviews with women methadone users will be completed as well as ten group sessions. Extensive field work will be completed in each of three different methadone clinics in San Francisco and in the homes of contacts made through interviewing. Qualitative methods will be used in the process of data gathering (e.g., depth interviewing and participant observation) and analysis in order to derive an understanding of the growing phenomenon of women's involvement with methadone. We hope to discover the basic processes which occur that shape the drug career of the woman who ultimately uses methadone, her lifestyle while on methadone including its effect on her children and other family and the forces which determine the length of her use of methadone. This information will be of use to those agencies which treat the woman addict, both therapeutically and legally. It will also be of use to those institutions which serve the needs of the children of methadone users.